MOVIEREVIEW- Burn after reading: Sly Coen brothers hit paydirt again

It seems fitting for the makers of last year's big award-winner to kick off this year's "serious season" at the movies, and being who they are, Joel and Ethan Coen do so in high comic style.

Be aware that September and October traditionally bring a lot of sheep in award-contender clothing– films that could have had class, could have been contenders, but somehow missed the mark; so they're released in also-ran slots while the heavy hitters wait for November and December.

Presented with such a heavy analysis the Coens would probably say, "Who cares? Here's our movie."

And here it is indeed– a darkly comic look at the CIA, gyms, romance, and divorce. If you don't laugh at least once a minute, you should spend your time attending funerals, where you'll fit in better.

Having written a brilliant screenplay that will be deconstructed by writing classes for decades, the Coens proceed to have fun with it. And their cast has fun with it. The presence of George Clooney and Brad Pitt invites comparisons to the Ocean's movies. Burn gives the same impression of the actors enjoying themselves, but it's more cerebral, less action-oriented, and with very R-rated language.

CIA analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is taken off the Balkans desk because he has a drinking problem. "I have a drinking problem?" he yells at a co-worker between "WTF?"s. "You're a Mormon. Next to you everybody has a drinking problem."

Cox goes home and tells wife Katie (Tilda Swinton)– when he can get her to listen– that he quit and will stay home and write his memoirs. She doesn't care, because she's thinking of leaving Cox for her lover, Harry Pfarrer (Clooney), a former bodyguard who works for the Treasury Department. Harry doesn't encourage her, because he's just in it for the fun, and she's not much fun anymore. Besides, there's nothing wrong with his wife, children's book author Sandy (Elizabeth Marvel). He just likes variety.

At Hardbodies, manager Ted (Richard Jenkins) has a crush on Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand), who's upset because their HMO won't pay for the cosmetic surgery she wants. When the janitor finds a CD in the women's locker room, Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) discovers it's full of classified information and tracks it to Osborne Cox. He and Linda think they can blackmail Cox into paying to get the disc back, or if not they can sell it to the Russians. (The latter twist was probably funnier when it was written, before the Russkies became bad guys again.)

Oblivious to Ted, who loves her as she is, Linda looks for computer dates and lucks into Harry, who doesn't put all his eggs into just two baskets.

From there things get a little complicated and a little violent, while mostly staying funny. Cox's CIA superior (David Rasche) details the events they know about to his boss (JK Simmons), a straight-faced, strait-laced type who says, "Report back to me when it makes sense."

All the characters are cartoonish to some extent. The only actor I had trouble with is Pitt, who seems to be playing a character about half his age and–especially in his first scene– possibly gay. It's a good-natured spoofing of airheaded gymbots, and maybe we should let it go at that.

And when Harry unveils the mystery project he's been building in his basement– no, I won't spoil that surprise for you.

In a perfect world, marriages would last forever, HMOs would cover all our medical expenses– and there would be no comedy. Since the world isn't perfect, let's be glad we have the Coen Brothers to find the humor in it. Burn after Reading is no movie for old men who don't like to laugh.

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2 comments

John Giuliano September 16th, 2008 | 11:26am

Gustav was modified. Ike was modified. Katrina was modified. GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD: THE GOVERNMENT CAN REDUCE THE STRENGTH OF ANY HURRICANE BY AT LEAST 30% FOR A FEW MILLION DOLLARS. NOT DEBATABLE. DOCUMENTED FACT. INSTEAD OF DOING THIS, THEY USE WEATHER MODIFICATION TO CREATE AND STRENGTHEN HURRICANES. THIS ALONE IS JUSTIFICATION FOR ANY ACT OF AGGRESSION AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT. BY THE WAY, THE "CELL TOWERS" HAVE MOOD-CONTROLLING FREQUENCIES THAT HAVE BEEN STUDIED ON YOU FOR YEARS, AND ARE IN USE AGAINST YOU RIGHT NOW. YOU DON'T EVEN OWN YOUR EMOTIONS ANYMORE. IT'S ALL CONTROLLED BY THE ELITE. THAT'S WHY READING THIS DOESN'T MAKE YOU WANT TO KILL CORRUPT GOVERNMENT GOONS. YOU'RE MODIFIED, JUST LIKE THE HURRICANES AND STORM FRONTS. THE DROUGHT WE HAD THIS SUMMMER WAS THE DIRECT RESULT OF WEATHER MODIFICATION. BUT SINCE THE NEWS ON TV AND IN THE LOCAL PAPERS AREN'T RUNNING THE HEADLINE: US FEDERAL GOVERNMENT USES WEATHER MODIFICATION TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE HURRICANES TO DESTROY REFINERIES TO MAXIMIZE OIL PROFITS AND TEST GOVERNMENT EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DRILLS IN PREPARATION FOR MARTIAL LAW WHEN THE GOVERNMENT SETS OFF A NUKE AND BLAMES IT ON EITHER RUSSIA OR CHINA, AND DRYING UP PRECIPITATION PRODUCING CLOUDS TO INDUCE DROUGHT IN ORDER TO MAXIMIZE PROFITS FROM AGRICULTURE COMMODITIES SPECULATIONS, AS WELL AS FOR FUN. THEREFORE, SINCE IT'S NOT IN THE NEWS LIKE THE GOVERNMENT-CONTROLLED HOOK AND C-VILLE WEEKLY (NOT KIDDING, FOLKS - THEY'RE COMPLETE CIA FILTERS), IT ISN'T REAL. IT'S JUST THE WORDS OF SOME KOOK WHO DOESN'T GET PAID NEARLY ENOUGH FOR WHAT HE DOES, NOT THAT THE DOLLAR IS WORTH ANYTHING ANYWAY. GIVE ME SOME GOLD!

movie buff September 20th, 2008 | 4:46pm

Brad Pitt can be so funny, as long as he's not taking himself too seriously... in any case, it's about time someone made good use of his habitually spastic arm movements www.kogmedia.com